A team of 50 authors from 40 institutions led by Nick Holmes (Island Conservation, Santa Cruz, California, USA) has published open access in the online journal PLOS ONE on the results of analysing a data set of 1279 islands worldwide whose Endangered and Critically Endangered vertebrate species are at risk of local extinction from introduced mammals.

Four of the highest conservation-value islands featured which provide key breeding grounds for populations of ACAP-listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters are Robinson Crusoe (Chile), Amsterdam (France), Guadalupe (Mexico) and Gough (UK).

A Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena chick on Gough Island is slowly dying after overnight attacks by introduced House Mice

Photograph by Karen Bourgeois/Sylvain Dromzee

Other islands with breeding populations of ACAP-listed species identified as globally important conservation opportunities for invasive mammal eradications in the publication are Mocha (Chile), Plata (Ecuador), three Crozet Islands (Cochons, Est and Possession, France), Saint-Paul (France), Auckland (main island), Great Barrier/Aotea (New Zealand), Marion (South Africa), five Balearic Islands (Cabrera Gran, Conillera, Espalmador, Espartar and Tagomago, Spain), Tristan da Cunha (main island, UK), and Lehua (confirmation of Polynesian Rat Rattus exulans eradication awaited) and Sand Island, Midway Atoll (both USA).

Eradication efforts are currently in the planning stages for Gough, Marion and Midway (all directed at House Mice Mus musculus) and for Auckland Island (feral cats,  feral pigs and House Mice).  Research on Amsterdam Island's introduced mammals (feral cats and rodents) commenced last year towards informing planning for possible future eradications (click here).  South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* is included on the paper’s list of islands but has now been declared free of invasive mammals following successful eradication campaigns against rodents and Reindeer Rangifer tarandus.  In correspondence with ACAP Latest News, the publication’s senior author explains that France’s sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands, which support both important populations of a number of ACAP-breeding species and invasive mammals, were considered but are not included because overall they exceeded the maximum island size for the analysis conducted.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Invasive alien species are a major threat to native insular species.  Eradicating invasive mammals from islands is a feasible and proven approach to prevent biodiversity loss.  We developed a conceptual framework to identify globally important islands for invasive mammal eradications to prevent imminent extinctions of highly threatened species using biogeographic and technical factors, plus a novel approach to consider socio-political feasibility.  We applied this framework using a comprehensive dataset describing the distribution of 1,184 highly threatened native vertebrate species (i.e. those listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List) and 184 non-native mammals on 1,279 islands worldwide.  Based on extinction risk, irreplaceability, severity of impact from invasive species, and technical feasibility of eradication, we identified and ranked 292 of the most important islands where eradicating invasive mammals would benefit highly threatened vertebrates.  When socio-political feasibility was considered, we identified 169 of these islands where eradication planning or operation could be initiated by 2020 or 2030 and would improve the survival prospects of 9.4% of the Earth’s most highly threatened terrestrial insular vertebrates (111 of 1,184 species).  Of these, 107 islands were in 34 countries and territories and could have eradication projects initiated by 2020.  Concentrating efforts to eradicate invasive mammals on these 107 islands would benefit 151 populations of 80 highly threatened vertebrates and make a major contribution towards achieving global conservation targets adopted by the world’s nations.”

Near Threatened White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi on Auckland Island: at risk to feral cats and pigs, photograph by David Thompson

Read popular accounts written from different perspectives of the publication from the BBC, Guardian, Island Conservation, New Zealand Herald and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

With thanks to Nick Holmes, Island Conservation.

Reference:

Holmes, N.D., Spatz, D.R., Oppel, S., Tershy, B., Croll, D.A., Keitt, B. et al. 2019.  Globally important islands where eradicating invasive mammals will benefit highly threatened vertebrates. PLOS ONE 14(3) & supporting information.  doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0212128.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 April 2019

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

Marie Claire Gatt (Centro de Estudos Do Ambiente E Do Mar, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Ornithology on where female Yelkouan Shearwaters Puffinus yelkouan (globally Vulnerable) go to  make their eggs.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The pre-laying exodus (PLE) is considered a crucial period in the breeding biology of Procellariiformes as it determines the success of egg production within a season and, therefore, a population’s reproductive output. However, it has scarcely been studied compared to other stages of the annual cycle. Here we present the first pre-laying tracks of the vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan) through the Global Positioning System tracking of birds breeding on the Maltese islands in the Central Mediterranean, and compare PLE core utilisation areas to known areas used during the chick-rearing period. Females spend, on average, 13 days foraging during egg development, reaching an average maximum distance of 325.5 km from their breeding colony to forage at offshore areas mainly south of the Maltese islands; these journeys are of longer duration and cover a greater distance than those undertaken by males, and by females that are not developing an egg, during the same period. There is little to no overlap between the PLE core utilisation areas and those used during chick-rearing by the same populations. This confirms our expectations that the PLE differs from foraging trips undertaken outside of the egg development period. Our results highlight the need for more research into the factors attracting egg-producing females to the PLE foraging areas and the importance of trans-boundary marine protection for the conservation of vulnerable seabirds.”

Yelkouan Shearwater at sea, photograph by Alex Olle

Reference:

Gatt, M.C., Lago, P., Austad, M., Bonnet-Lebrun, A.-S. & Metzger, B.J. 2019.  Pre-laying movements of Yelkouan Shearwaters (Puffinus yelkouan) in the Central Mediterranean.  Journal of Ornithology doi.org/10.1007/s10336-019-01646-x.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 April 2018

The Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11) will be held over 13-17 May 2019 in Florianópolis, Brazil.  The Ninth Meeting of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG), and Fifth Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG) will precede AC11 at the same venue from 10 to 14 May.

The many Meeting Documents and Information Papers for the two working groups have now been posted to this website, from where they may be downloaded and consulted.  Note, however, that some documents are password-protected so only their abstracts are publicly available.  For convenience a meeting document lists all papers to be tabled by title and author(s) for each working group; draft agendas have also been posted.

Documents for the Advisory Committee meeting, in all three ACAP official languages of English, French and Spanish will be loaded to this site soon.

The ACAP-listed Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata visits Brazilian waters from its Inaccessible Island home

Brazil has previously hosted the Agreement; the Second Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC2) was held in Brasilia in June 2006.  This year’s Advisory Committee and working group meetings follow on from AC10, held in Wellington, New Zealand in September 2017 and the Sixth Session of the Meeting of Parties (MoP6) held in South Africa’s Kruger National Park last year in May.  The Seventh Session (MoP7) is due to be held in 2021 in Australia – when ACAP will be 20 years old.

Florianópolis is the capital and second largest city of the State of Santa Catarina in the southern region of Brazil.  It is served by an international airport.  A coastal city situated on Santa Caterina Island with a humid subtropical climate, it has a population of roughly half a million.  The island is connected to the Brazilian mainland by bridges and is known for its many tourist beaches.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 April 2019

A total of 51 eggs (a record number, well up from the usual 30 or so) was laid by the globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi population breeding on the mainland at Taiaroa Head on New Zealand’s South Island this (2018/19) season. The high total is thought due to the large number of birds that failed in the previous season returning after a year, instead of missing the usual year if they had bred successfully.  In the 2017/18 season 33 eggs were laid but only 13 chicks fledged (39.4%) following a large number of embryo deaths in what was the hottest summer on record.  In 2016/17 23 birds fledged from 36 eggs laid (63.9%); equivalent figures for 2015/16 were 26/35 (74.3%).

Thirty-four of the 51 eggs hatched (66.7%).  Sophie Barker, Marketing Manager, Otago Peninsula Trust writes to ACAP Latest News: "we think one of the fertility issues might have been a becalming period (no wind) when the albatross should have been mating, as there is a short period when the egg is being formed for mating to be successful."

During hot, windless conditions fly strike has also been a problem that can kill hatching chicks: "issues with heat include a very nasty fly that lays live maggots (came over late last century from Australia) and with very little wind caused problems".  Insecticides have been used to address this. There are currently 29 surviving chicks in the colony (DNA testing of egg shell remnants has shown there are 19 female and 10 male chicks), all described to ALN by the Royal Albatross Centre as being “healthy”.  If all 29 chicks fledge successfully (giving a breeding success of 56.9%) this will also be a record; the previous highest number of fledglings in a previous season is 27.

An ongoing concern in the colony is rising temperatures causing increased levels of heat stress among the birds.  The mist irrigation system to cool down the birds has been improved as a consequence, with hand spraying at nests also being utilized during heat waves.  Predator control is continuing as in previous years, with an aspiration to protect the colony from feral cats and stoats with a pest-proof fence.  In the meantime 14 Stoats had been trapped within the colony by mid-March this year.

Once more the 24-hour live-streaming “Royalcam” has been set up facing an occupied nest.  This year’s camera chick is a female.  Watch her being fed and follow her growth to fledging here.

More hands-on management: the Royalcam chick from a previous season gets weighed in a laundry basket in front of the camera

Photograph from the Royal Albatross Centre

An interesting biological snippet comes from the Royal Albatross Centre’s Facebook page:  “It was so nice to see another albatross parent feeding our Royalcam chick the other day. This is unusual behaviour but has been seen in the past.”  Another piece of news describes a pair who abandoned their egg very early on leading to it being placed in an incubator to keep it alive.  The egg was then given to a foster pair which had an egg deemed infertile following candling, resulting in the chick “doing well at the foster nest”.  Hands-on management all round!

With thanks to Sophie Barker, Marketing Manager, Otago Peninsula Trust for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 April 2019